ILOILO City – Mayor Jerry Treñas has given concerned companies until next month to fix “spaghetti wires” and road-obstructing posts.
“Kon indi pa gid nila maareglo, sya (Treñas) na lang mang-utod,” according to Councilor Ely Estante.
Bedraggled wirings uglifying the city are mostly cable wires of telecommunications companies and cable television companies, not power lines, a recent hearing of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s Committee on Rules found out.
“Ang kalabanan nga culprit sini PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.) gid,” according to Estante whose proposed ordinance addressing the problem on “spaghetti wires” was tackled by the Committee on Rules recently.
They have no uniform plans for their cables, according to Estante, resulting to these wires dangling more like pesky cobwebs.
Estante’s proposed ordinance also covered posts – also by telecommunications and television cable companies – that have yet to be removed from widened roads in the city.
“Kalabanan sang poste sang Panay Electric Co. (PECO) na-idog na nila,” said Estante.
Estante’s proposed ordinance compels telcos, cable television companies and PECO to fix their unkempt wires and move poles that have become road obstructions.
“These are eyesores and pose danger to the public,” said Estante.
According to the councilor, PLDT confirmed having around 49 poles yet to be removed from widened roads while PECO has 10 left.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) told the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in a recent hearing that from Oct. 1 to 27, there were 12 incidents of pole fires.
From January to Oct. 27 of this year, BFP recorded 200 incidents of pole fires in the city.
In 2016, there were 453 reported fire incidents, 360 of which were caused by faulty electrical connections and 303 of pole fires.
In 2017, there were 361 fires caused by faulty electrical connections and 275 pole fires.
In 2018, 301 fires were caused by faulty electrical connections and 233 are pole fires, and as of Oct. 27, 2019, there were already 253 fire incidents caused by faulty electrical connections and 200 pole fires. That is an average of 28 fire incidents caused by faulty electrical connections per month.
According to the BFP, the reasons for these incidents were dilapidated and ageing wooden poles and electrical wires and overloaded transformers of the 95 years old power utility PECO.
The tolerance of illegal connections or “jumper” is also a culprit to the fires caused by faulty electrical connections, it added.
In the ERC hearing, BFP clarified that only electrical cables could cause fires and not telephone or cable TV wires, contrary to PECO’s justification./PN
